Tun Mahathir resigns as Proton chairman immediately

Proton has announced that its chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has resigned from his post with immediate effect. He has also stepped down as chairman of Group Lotus. The former premier sent a letter of resignation to DRB-Hicom group managing director Datuk Seri Syed Faisal Albar yesterday.

“We respect his wish to step down; we would like to register our utmost appreciation for his valuable contribution, commitment and dedication for his role as Chairman since 2014 as well as an Advisor since 2003,” said the national automaker in a statement. “We would like to express our gratitude and recognise Tun Dr Mahathir’s role as the creator of the national car company.”

In addition to his posts at Proton, Mahathir has also resigned as advisors to the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) and the Tioman Island Development Authority (TIDA). The chief secretary to the government has been informed of these resignations.

After trying to pursue a career in product design, Jonathan Lee decided to make the sideways jump into the world of car journalism instead. He therefore appreciates the aesthetic appeal of a car, but for him, the driving experience is still second to none.

Malaysian Government cannot sustain Proton anymore. Cannot lah, every year ask for money despite kononnya being in Private Hands.

Somemore, Proton is asking billions. The recent asking was RM1.5 billion. How long can this go on?

When Mahathir was PM, it was so easy. Just take DIRECT from Petronas. One pocket into another. Every year Mahathir just take billions from Petronas into Proton just to keep the company afloat.

Then when Mahathir resign as PM but still Petronas big advisor, the same, still take money direct from Petronas and give to Proton just to keep the company afloat.

How long can this go on? Pity Petronas also. They need to re-invest money into exploration and drilling. They cannot be giving FREE money to Proton.

Proton few days ago declared they lost RM2.5 billion in 3 years. Proton also is losing RM25 million every month (about RM1 mil per day). We cannot be sustaining a company that is losing that much just to keep the national pride. Even Jaguar was sold to Indian Tata. Even Aston Martin was sold to Ford.

It is high time we also sell Proton to somebody or just close shop. The oppurtunity cost is just way too much.

If Proton did not exist, the money saved just to keep the company float can be used to build at least 10 fully fledged Government hospitals and Government Schools in each state every 10 years.

One question I cannot understand, during the good years of the 90s, when Proton was making money, how come Proton never saved for a rainy day? Most prudent companies have RM billions in reserves. Where is Proton’s reserves? nothing.

This what hapens when during good times, the company was living luxuriously and spending like a King without saving a sen. Instead of giving staff and directors Protons to use, they were all given Audis, for example.

Muniandy Periasamy, since when the Malaysian Government “sustain Proton”? All it does is suck Proton dry with all the mandatory sponsorship proposals (or else get a call from the people upstairs) and get cars for free from Proton. Get your facts rights before attempting to be just an empty can that makes lots of noises.

Pls pls proton now u can stop awrding biz to useless ppl appointed by tun m. Cancel all biz with Dreamedge and specially the Lebanese fiber shop
Kit car maker Bufori. They must all be audited if u want to be honest.

Tun is very clever. He knows he was about to get sacked. So, to maintain his dignity, better to resign. But now, resignation has its ripple effect.

All this while, Proton has been living under the glory of Tun. From inception in 1985 to now 2016 March 31. Tun has been pulling strings for Proton every step of the way. When he was PM, he made sure every year, billions were given free to Proton to sustain their luxurious lifestyle.

Even when Tun resigned as PM, he still could make miracles happen for Proton. Miracles I mean free money in billions every year quietly given to Proton.

Now, Tun has no more power. With his latest law suit against Najib, he has lost power to get Proton FREE money in billions. His last effort was few days ago when he tried his luck to get Proton RM1.5 billion. That failed.

So now, Proton is bleeding badly. To make matters worse, there is no more Tun. No make matters even worse, Government will stop or cut down on orders of Proton cars as Government themselves believe sustaining Proton is just a waste of money.

Today is historical. It marks the death of Proton. Proton will slowly bleed to death from now on. OMG, Proton is losing RM1 million per day. Nobody can save this sinking ship.

I wish Proton close shop. It has made many Malaysians suffer. 30 years, Malaysians suffered super high car prices because of Proton. If Proton was not around, The Toyota Corolla (Altis) will probably be RM70k. And everybody will be able to afford a good reliable Japanese car.

Datuk muniandy,if protong close shop…we still got this Perodua fella selling at very high prices.
Imagine,a 1.3 Myvi at rm 45 K with no ABS.The MYVI should be priced rm 10K cheaper.
Because of this bladdy experiment called Proton,all of us (including the bladdy fanboys)are suffering high car prices.
Perodua ‘s prices…this Aminar fella enjoying record bonuses,sitting in his posh office..saying” If proton mampus,saya KING”.
Proton close shop,Perodua chan kei wooi(take opportunity)jack up prices cos the next 2 nearest competitors are Nissan,UMW,Honda.

Most Malaysians can enjoy cheap and reasonable cars but because of Proton, all the other car prices have been raised up tremendously to protect Proton. Malaysians have already suffered so much. For 30 years, 30 million people suffer so much.
We struggle paying for our high car prices all because of dying Proton to live. Proton sucks billions of our LHDN money.

Every year government gives hundreds of million to Proton as form of grants.

Every other year, Proton ask RM billions in help. Recently, even under private hands also (DRB) Proton asked the government to give them free few RM billions from LHDN.

Proton also cost us hundreds of billions in ringgit in investments from car companies who moved to Thailand and Indonesia. Car companies got fed up with Malaysia’s MITI for protecting Proton and telling other companies what to price their cars. They got sick and tired of the AP system and how genuine brands cannot get enough APs to import their cars in (like Mercedes, BMW and Honda).

They thought that if they set up their brands and plants in Malaysia, they knew they had to give 30% of their hard earned company free away as well as being told by MITI what to price their cars. They all moved their operations to Thailand making it the AutoCity of the world.

Recently GM announced that they rolled out already 1 million cars from Thailand.

Imagine if GM was in Malaysia and we taxed GM RM10,000 per car. Calculate that with 1 million cars. Just from GM alone, we lost Billions in USD. Imagine what will the amount be from other car companies if they had set up in Malaysia?

Because of Proton, we lost hundreds of billion of ringgit in investment and trillions of ringgit from jobs lost. If Malaysia was the autocity of Asia, hundreds of thousands of jobs would have been created for Malaysians. We lost all that. Trillions of Ringgit and hundreds of thousands of jobs. Now, Thailand is benefiting from this trillions lost.

Car companies are flocking to invest hundreds of billions in Thailand despite Thailand being an unstable government, unstable economy and full of bomb blastings and terror.
Yet, global car companies still prefer Thailand.

Which is better? 300,000 jobs created by car companies setting up plants in Malaysia or to sustain the existing 30,000 Proton employees that have been living off us the past 30 years?

WRK,
Now, with Tun saying SAYORNARA,next will be a few thousand deadwood having sleepless nights,and soon saying SAYORNARA.
PROTONG,should not have existed,in the first place.
YAB Tun took a very bad experiment,thinking it is giving jobs to locals but look at the MESS now.
Thousands of Malaysians have to endure a Bolehland car of suspect quality.All of us should be enjoying Japanese cars at much lower prices.
Now,we have to open our eyes to see MASS LAYOFFS soon at Protong soon.
By 2017,when pROTON’S sales cannot surpass 50,000 units,it is high time Perodua be renamed PEROTAMA OR PERTAMA.
Protong,time is not on your side.Just insaf,close shop,pay off your employees handsomely cos they got many mouths to feed.

At last Proton can close their shops. All those engineers, designers and contractors can start thinking to sell nasik lemak by the roads.

Come on, how come Malaysians can built cars? Never! All the Kilang can be sold to international companies to gain money. Money can be used to pay debts.

Who need to teach engineering in universities. We should focus on creating workers only. International car factories setup here, and we work for them. High level thinking should be banned from our universities syllabus. We should stop asking our children to talk about innovation and dream big, no use meh.

Sigh, Malaysian cars? Malaysian engineering? who going to be proud of Malaysian product after all. We all bought Continental, Korean, and Japanese cars.

I’m loving what you did there…
Nice sarcasm…
Most ignorant fools didn’t realise they are living in comfort today due to the industrialisation boom with PROTON as the catalyst. Its not about the car, it’s about the mindset and the spillover effect that came after it, business grew because of PROTON, they diversified and help other business, expanded into new township which most of these critics here, sitting poshly on their comfy little home unbeknownst to what led Malaysia into what it is today. Without R&D capability and investment in technology, tell me, how many MALAYSIANs, can produce a car from the ground level up, comply with ridiculously strict EU laws (they are biased to EURO cars by the way) international UNECE standards, not many. And those new competitors have benefited from the staff that has gained precious knowledge and training by their stint at PROTON. So you can’t just compare them to dollar & cents, PROTON very much value their workforce talents and supported them all the way. These men & women could be your family members, who earn their honest living over there, therefore, hurtful comments such as the above might be a little excessive. It’s fine if you have no more pride in Malaysia, don’t feel proud of the Malaysian brand anymore, even to some extent are not proud being a Malaysian even, but to hate a company just to fulfill ones fantasies of owning a Japanese/Euro car at a lower price at the expense of own expertise & capabilities, is very narrow minded and downright disgraceful. No sense of unity like the Japanese or Korean, that’s why we can never have products like them.

Yes, Proton may collapse without Tun but that doesn’t mean your government remove the hefty taxation on foreign vehicles. Especially at this desperate time where the governement is looking at everywhere to suck money from you, the rakyat to pay off the 1MDB debt and feed their greeds.

On what are you basing that statement? The rot that is going to keep us third world, abuse of power, manipulation of judiciary, nepotism and cronyism, and protectionism all became fully entrenched in Malaysia under TDM. We are all suffering from his legacy.

Actually, p1 cars have good safety features. Except for saga. Most of other models have utilised the hot press forming technology, which strengthen the chassis. If u want to know what HPF does, it actually change the microstructure of a regular carbon steel to martensite which increase the strength and hardness by reducing the ductility. Im not a proton fan. If u ask me, i want an mr-s with k20a. But u cant deny proton got some great safety features.

I wonder if this Oily fella really knows what’s happening in the country . LOL! Proton does not suck money from Malaysia. It doesn’t operate on the people’s money, or tax payers money or the government money. Proton and its employees are also tax payers. Proton and its employees contribute to zakat and the recipients could be your poor uncles, aunties, 3rd cousin or your mom’s grandparents Oily. There is no logic if Proton closes down, cars by other manufacturers will be sold cheaper. Proton doesn’t have a say how much other cars should be priced. Proton is also tied to these taxation by the government. Proton has not had any loan or grants from the government since DRB bought over the shares from Khazanah in 2012. Proton took loans from local banks and these banks are still enjoying the high paybacks by Proton monthly. I don’t know you are so mean in comment Oily. Perhaps once upon a time you did apply for a job in Proton but your CV was so poorly-written and it didnt get a second look. Poor Oily. Boo hoo.

HAHAHA… RESIGNED? CLOSE DOWN PROTON FIRST THEN RESIGN LA…..DON’T WASTE ANY MORE SARAWAK RESOURCES AND OUR HARD EARNED MONEY FOR THIS NEVER IMPROVE AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY PROTON. QUITE A GOOD NEWS, CLOSE LAAAA

Just admit it. P1 branding has hit a wall and
the only option is to offer an equity stake to another manufacturer and progress from there.
No use spending billions on R&D and at the end of the day the sales numbers just don’t add up.
Time for the management of DRB & TS Syed Mokhtar to take this big step in steering P1 to the next level.
Please don’t live in oblivion !!

Lol u all must understand. He resign so proton wont effect by tun m vs najib. So maybe government can help Proton after he resign. Read what the article bold la.lol laugh read comment sell proton sell to china. Proton wont close la lolololol. See MAS, u think gov will them close and bankrupt kah? Lololol

TunM maybe a great statesman from an era ago… his time has gone n he has no business involved in the auto industry.

Yet, apalah wei… DRB n P1 mgmt STILL pan handling th Govt for handouts… why take over a company n still needing tongkat…? DRB bigwigs are too pampered… either buckle up or stand down… either u build it up or u sell it off or even get partners who know what they’re doing… owning 25% of something profitable is always better than owning 100% but at a loss.

Saddest day of my life. We have lost a great leader,visionary and strategist who led Proton to become the best selling vehicle in Malaysia & made malaysians so proud to see a locally made car drive pass the major highways in U.K., Spain & Turkey. The man who gave every Malaysian the oppoturnity to own their own car by producing the most competetive car in Malaysia.The man who single handedly made the major automobile powers of Japan (toyota & honda) and Germany (merc & bmw) shiver by making Proton the best selling vehicle in Malaysia. The man who orchestrated the acquisition of Lotus & MV Agusta from western superpowers. Clearly all Malaysians are indebted to this great Tun

Dude , proton made under quality cars with really bad safety in earlier stage. Dont believe me go to you tube and see the crash test for proton cars. Made me believe that for proton profit is first in their list , safety was left out. Many lives has been taken, many families perished. You may argue these proton drivers were reckless and were not good drivers, I totally agree too but as far as proton should be concern is their cars should keep safety of the occupants at the highest.
Fast forward to today , protons are admittedly better but
so are other brands.
Lotus & MV Agusta were major losses for us. Proton bought MV august for like huge sum RM 1 billion and sold it for 1 euro later. No need to say about lotus, that one another major lost.
Honestly speaking japan and german car makers didnt shake nor shiver but merely laughed at proton and most importantly at us for using these moving coffins. And the best part we as malaysian were sold protons that was missing all the good stuff , safety , gadgets compare to the all the countries you have mention earlier despite the fact we paid for the car the most.

Not just you.. I’m losing confident with Proton too.. So many hype about the model and then, delay the launch again.. They cannot deliver their promise to the home market, how can they deliver their promise to the international market.. “Delay” seems to be Proton’s habit.. I will not surprised if the introduction of the new engine will be delayed too.. Typical Proton.. Said want to change but big talk only.. Shame..

I don’t believe that by closing Proton will solve the car price. And I also don’t believe that by closing Proton or whichever Malaysian’s companies will let our leaders to allow us to drive the same Roll Royce, side by side with them. Keep dreaming dudes!

Did we love to see all Malaysian sell nasi lemak at road bank? Begging and figthing to survive like happened between taxi and uber? Last we laugh when MAS terminate the employees. Then ONG industry… so whats next? Do you see any improvement on your cost living?

Who set the policies guys? Did MAS or Proton? Yes they are part of problems but who set the direction for all industries in Malaysia?

My pray belongs to all Malaysian who suffered from unethical policies and management. May GOD bless us and our future generation.

Without Tun M as the visionary leader to guide you, I don’t know what will happen to you. :( Now you are 32 years old mom, a sweet and caring mom. Carry us to almost every where in Malaysia with our little Saga.

I still remember when we dropped the Proton Wira at the North Pole is was a joy for me when I was kid, I meant come on! Even Ferrari never landed there!

I taking Mechanical Engineering just to work with Proton to build a car that someday to prove that we are able to make a super as good as Ferrari,Porsche,Lamborghini,Bugatti and others. I dreamed to built a car that will tackle the ‘Green Hell’ aka Nürburgring Circuit, but I guess sometimes there limits huh?

But it’s okay, I will continue chasing my dream and I will make sure our next car will conquer every car, race track and road in this world! \(TuT)/

-Sincerely, a 21-years old kid that is still 10-years old. May the speed angels be with you!

I dont understand why ppl kept condeming proton. Whether Proton die or not car prices in msia wont go down bcoz of Proton. Look at other Asean countries Thailand, look at Indonesia, Philippines… Do u see Accord is any cheaper there?
What would be sad if Proton die is that… Some foreign company may take over and make it a successful business then sell the brand off at much higher value….just like the motorcycle brand Proton sold off years ago….sad.
We Msian are partly to be blamed for Proton bad sales…but then again it may be a case of Proton had it too easy for too long…and to deserve this now?

Fyi all Paultan readers, P1 is Malaysia car maker and do u think the government simply want to close down P1??i’m gonna say that this issue is the same with the MAS. I dunno whats ur problem with P1. If u think P1 is the cause of other foreign car price went high u shud think again. Please let ur ‘kampung’ thought out of ur brain. How about P2?So we need to close P1 and P2 then can sack NAP?U all simply just thought handling a big company and country like digging ur nose meh?

This is Malaysian, always condemning Malaysian brands and be proud with outside brands. Make up your mind guys, if you don’t like..shut up your mouth. No need barking like a dog.. If Proton close shop, itu diorg punya hal.. business is business. Pls care Proton workers heart and stop insult them. They have family, they have children. If people make a joke about your job how?

Is it means that we can have cheaper price now? Excise duty to be reduced? BN oi BN bangang, if u still wan the majority non-Malays (Chinese and Indian) to support you, very easy. Stop all racial prejudice towards us and lower the car tax. Then for sure, your nxt PRU-14 will be a massive win.

No, I don’t think the PM will let Proton close shop. This company has always been a pride of Malaysia engineering and lately with quality and superb cars (and original) such as Preve, Iriz and Suprima S, it is very sayang to see it closes down. Probably Proton management should put on hold on new car creation and focus on marketing on local market and most importantly outside as all the latest cars has reached 5 stars ANCAP rating and EU emission standard. Those are very marketable features so I don’t understand why the IRIZ or event Preve hasn’t reach at England market.

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